Travel photos, veterinary medicine, Cambodia, pop culture, life in Los Angeles and other things that make up my brain soup.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Got spoon?

Dusty is my 15 1/2 year old Pekingese who has been my faithful companion for many years.

Sadly, he is not in the best of shape. He has a bad back, failing kidneys, and only one eye. I'm not sure how he lost his eye; I adopted him as a half-blind senior pet about eight years ago. His deteriorating back and kidneys are just a resultof old age.

He's such an incredibly tough guy. He never seems grouchy, never demands attention and these days, he's quite happy to sleep on a pile of my clothes. I'm fortunate that I can take him to work with me and he has become such a part of my morning routine that I can't imagine a life without him.

Unfortunately his appetite has been quite poor lately. He is supposed to be eating a special kidney diet and although I usually mix in some chicken, even that has not stimulated his desire to eat this past week. He only weighs eight pounds on a good day and he used to weigh ten. He can't afford to lose any more weight.

Today, I decided to fix him a delicious breakfast. At least I thought it was delicious. Kidney diet (okay, he's gotta eat SOME of this), A/D (a special food for sick pets), Beneful chicken medley (just a spoonful for a treat), and Trader Joe's chicken. Sounds pretty good right? Not to Dusty. He looked at it and walked away. It broke my heart to see him so disinterested.

Being the klutz that I am, I dropped the wooden spoon that I used to mix his breakfast on the floor. I didn't pick it up right away because I am also a lazy bastard.

But go figure. THIS is what Dusty wanted. He started gnawing on the wooden spoon like a goddamn beaver. He spent over half an hour chomping and licking the utensil while his delicious breakfast spoiled next to him. Being the Youtube generation, I had to film it.

I should also mention that Dusty tried to eat a bar of expensive soap that was lying on the floor. Apparently soap tastes better than chicken when you have crappy kidneys.

Now I'm looking around the room in search of something that Dusty might find edible; my rubber duckies, my cellphone, highlighters, candles, pens ... I have a feeling this is going to be a very strange taste-test but damnit, I just want him to eat!